Learn more

Another first: Duluth alum takes on role as assistant dean

Posted
October 24, 2011

“I feel both personal pride and increased
responsibility — an ownership of the
curriculum for these students,” says Alan
Johns, M.D., M.Ed., of this year’s incoming
medical students. “I want them to
become excellent practicing physicians,
and this is their first step.”

Johns (Class of 1976) is taking his first
steps, too, as the new assistant dean
for medical education and curriculum
at the Medical School, Duluth campus.
He replaces Richard Hoffman, Ph.D.,
who left that role in anticipation of his
retirement in 2012.

The new job is another in a series of
“firsts” for Johns, who was one of the
first 24 students — and one of the first Native Americans — to
attend the University
of Minnesota Medical
School, Duluth campus
when it opened in 1972.

Johns has practiced
internal medicine at
St. Mary’s-Duluth Clinic
Health Care System (now
Essentia Health East)
since 1981 and began
teaching clinical medicine
in 1982 as an assistant
professor in the Department of Family
Medicine and Community Health. He
received his master’s degree in education
in 2009 from the University of
Minnesota, Duluth as well.

Medical students have
selected Johns as Clinical
Teacher of the Year multiple
times. In 1998 the Lake
Superior Medical Society named him Educator of the
Year, and he was the first
to receive Duluth Clinic
Foundation’s Excellence
in Education Award.

Johns says he plans
to build on Hoffman’s
accomplishments but
adds, “I also want to expand how we
evaluate our educational effectiveness.
Simply put: What works, what doesn’t
work, and why?”